THE memory of school dinners will stay with me for ever. It's strange the things you remember from your childhood and there is often no logic to it.

Major events escape me, but the taste of Huby Primary School's best semolina and the vision of dinner ladies serving mashed potato with an ice cream scoop will stay with me.

Apart from a minor run in with a dinner lady over gooseberry crumble, which I couldn't stand, I was always a great eater (still am unfortunately) and used to tuck into the hot pot and mixed vegetables with delight. It was always a good hearty hot meal, never a packed lunch.

As the nation is discovering that one in six under 15 year olds is medically obese and the Government is criticised for failing to provide and encourage healthy meal options in schools, I wonder where it all went wrong. Why were those rock hard broad beans we use to chew on traded in for potato waffles?

Chips, chips and more chips! According to this week's Ofsted report they are the favourite lunchtime nibble of our nation's young. From almost 6,000 secondary school pupils surveyed, only six per cent chose a healthy option for their lunch.

It looks as though we are prepared to preach the benefits of a nutritious diet in the classroom while serving up fast food junk daily in canteens across the country. In my school days, chips were a treat, a luxury, never accessible every day.

It is clear over the past 20 years the eating habits of children have definitely changed. Where they were a rarity, fast food outlets are now prevalent and convenience food is the preferred easy option to fit in with our busy lifestyles.

Research shows our eating habits and food fads are developed at a very early age.

Surely it is therefore imperative we feed our children the right sort of food from the start and it is the parents' responsibility, as well as the schools', to show their offspring that there is more to life than burgers and crispy coated processed chicken.

The golden arches of the fast-food mecca McDonalds have a powerful pull on anyone who has ever visited an establishment. Indeed the brand is so strong that a two-year-old I know who has experienced Mackie Dees only a handful of times declares "I want chips" every time he spots a golden M.

I'm sure many of us would also confess to the mouth watering tingle you get in the back your mouth when you pass a McDonalds on the motorway or the need to pull over at all costs to get your hands on a banana milkshake

Although I've always thought Ronald McDonald was a bit of a dodgy character, I've never thought anything sinister about the establishment itself or its food.

Yes, I know a Big Mac meal is fattening and therefore always order a Diet Coke to placate my guilt, but life threatening and dangerous No. Our opinions may change when the documentary Super Size Me, which is sweeping the States, hits the shores of good old Blighty.

In the documentary, the film's maker Morgan Spurlock embarks on a 30-day McDonald's-only diet. This sounds great you may think, but for Spurlock it has devastating effects ranging from rapid weight gain and meat sweats to soaring cholesterol and liver damage.

We'll have to judge the film for ourselves, but as you can imagine the all-powerful McDonalds' marketing machine is not lovin' it.

It was interesting to see this week a television advertisement for McDonalds with the usual blond, sweet-looking child diving into its Happy Meal with the attractive, slim mother looking on.

The difference with this advert was the declaration that the salt content in McNuggets has been reduced.

Is this a sign that McDonalds is starting to take responsibility and realise they have a role to play in ensuring our children are not subjected to the same levels of sugar, salt and fat? We'll just have to wait and see.

As I sign off for this week, it's goodbye from me, but unfortunately, I think it's going to be some time before our kids are saying Goodbye Mr Chips.

Sophie McGill has donated her fee for this column to York City FC Youth Development.

Updated: 10:22 Saturday, July 17, 2004